Thread: Money or Survival Skills

be given enough money for it to not be an issue in your life

This. The other option would still take a lot of my time.

Unfortunately, I'd have to choose money. You can do anything with it, and its the number one problem for most people. You can trace most problems back to it than any other thing.

Its a bad thing, but sometimes that's just how it works.

I also chose the first option. With enough money, I could get a house, a car, treat my family, travel the world and so many other things. I can't even imagine what a relief it would be to never have to worry about finances ever again. It would easily change my life and the lives of everyone I care about for the better.

I can't see the second option being of much use to me. I mean, if civilization collapsed and I was forced to fend for myself in the wilderness, then of course it would be handy. But other than that, I just don't really require survival skills to get by in life.

You can survive any where if you have enough money to buy the supplies for it. Try surviving on the moon, now that takes money and no amount of skill would ever help you.

I chose survival skills.
Money can get a lot of things, and I have grown accustomed to the easy, technology filled lives we lead today.

But...

Nothing comes close to the feelings I get when I am strolling through a beautiful forest, wild camping beside a lake or just hanging out with my friends at a park. It's easy to get pulled away from these simple joys that almost everyone has access. I usually have a lot of trouble getting away from the computer to go for a walk, just because it's so easy to live in my warm house without any stress.

The main reason I guess I chose survival skills is because ultimately I respect nature more than I do civilization. I think civilization is great but I don't think that anyone in the world should be wholly dependent on it, because it pulls us from our roots. The one thing that really gets me is when I see humans who don't understand the beauty of nature, those who ruin it or disregard it. I know that it is civilization that caused them to be that way and I want to be sure that I never become like that.

Maybe if I was given enough money to let me buy a huge plot of land then I would choose money so that I could build a nature reserve, other than that I choose survival skills.

I would choose a ton of money, then go on a survival training course.

money. It's easier to learn survival skills than it is to earn a huge amount of money. Especially if you already have some survival skills. It also depends on what you mean by "never have to worry about it". Does this mean I can buy whatever I want or that I will have enough to survive comfortably.

I think some of you are failing to consider the spirit of the question.

'I'd take money then learn survival skills' is kind of a cop-out. It's hard to phrase a question just right, to get at what the exact idea I want to talk about.

It's more of a 'what is more important to you' question. Don't worry about how much money, that doesn't matter. I specified the amount exactly to the degree that is relevant, no further.

Besides, I have a theory that learning true survival skills is impossible if you have a big enough money crutch. You will never know something by choice as thoroughly as you will by necessity.

Originally Posted by IndieAnthias

I think some of you are failing to consider the spirit of the question.

'I'd take money then learn survival skills' is kind of a cop-out. It's hard to phrase a question just right, to get at what the exact idea I want to talk about.

It's more of a 'what is more important to you' question. Don't worry about how much money, that doesn't matter. I specified the amount exactly to the degree that is relevant, no further.

Besides, I have a theory that learning true survival skills is impossible if you have a big enough money crutch. You will never know something by choice as thoroughly as you will by necessity.

Then I would choose the survival skills 100%
Money is a thirst that can never be quenched
The attainment of wealth is the source of every problem on this planet.

Money or Survival Skills

Would you rather:

A) be given enough money for it to not be an issue in your life

or

B) be magically granted expert wilderness survival skills for any climate?

It's kind of difficult to really choose the latter since it's limited just to having extreme skills into adapting to any climate. And even though that sounds like an enticing set of skills to have, with how things are now in society, I doubt we need to rely on raw instincts as more important to sustain ourselves. The question itself also is a bit more vague, seeing how any climate can extend into other possibilities. So I guess I'll break down the two parts of the question with my own opinions.
I'll start with the latter part of the question.

If I were given expert wilderness survival skills for any climate, I can only see it being truly useful if society just magically could create teleporters and transfer every component of our genetic and biological structure with deadly accuracy, and here's why:

• Even with all the wealth in the world, or just having enough money in your life to get by with anything, when it comes to uncertainty with potential resources and other factors when exploring new planets, the latter option of OP's question would be more suitable. Simply because if those same deus ex machina wilderness skills can truly apply to other planets than Earth, the potential for the individual to gain new resources could presumably help them gain money.

• And with that logic, being able to have the skills to survive in any climate, and theoretically any scenario, it means people on Earth would see you as a reliable asset in bettering society since you can gain more resources and knowledge of the conditions of other planets. You would be the conduit towards expanding society. A traveler that has this ability to progressively evolve biologically, genetically, and much more (seeing how you automatically defy theories behind Darwinism and Natural selection with those survival skills).

• And with that, you'd obviously have more opportunity to get more wealth because people will see your skills very essential to the overall good of society. But not only that, larger corporations are going to salivate over you, and everyone might end up having a system of deception and persuasion JUST to get you in their company for explorations into other worlds (presuming this is possible in society of course).

Of course, there's more possibilities I could get into, but unless society reaches to the point where we can expand through space more than just the Moon or Mars, and being able to put ourselves in planets that have similar living conditions of earth, the ability to survive seems "less important" in my opinion.

So to answer the first part of the question, I would prefer having money that will help me get by with most or all things in life as more important, and here's why:

• I personally feel that as much as I would like to be striving for more knowledge and knowing how to survive in any climate conditions in a given environment, that ability would only be as useful as my faith in just wanting to expand and wanting to know more at a faster pace than people usually want in this life. Being able to have money to get by with most things in life, I could be able to use that money to collect as many resources in learning things through books, e-books, videos, etc. that would be hard to get for free. Because I have this wealth of information (but not necessarily being able to apply practice into making them skills), I have more to work around with. And because I have more time for myself, seeing how money is much easier to obtain, I would become more motivated to just research a bit more and apply myself productively.

• Even though using money for learning skills or have simulation courses to gain them seems like a cop-out, it feels more realistic to have money in order to reach that. It's more practical to have money, something that can be as strong depending on how you use it, compared to having a deus ex machina skill of survival. The money is more tangible, and although it can create predispositions for one to become attached to it, it doesn't mean the individual can't find ways to train themselves out of that.

• I often have to compare how money would be more important when I compare it to Batman (even though he's clearly fiction), seeing how he's the epitome of someone with large sums of wealth that helped him learn how to become an escape artist, skilled in certain degrees of fighting, and much more. Because when you have an ability to survive in any climate, it means you'll defy our limits of being human. And like Batman, he's mortal, he's no superhero, the only real power that makes him unique is just his trained ability to never give up, which leads him to do things beyond the spectrum of what people would be willing to do; he takes risks, he has wealth as a supplement to his own goals, and isn't even greedy because of it.

I know the analogy is a bit out there, but I feel how you think the first part of the question is flawed is because learning how to control ourselves and our greed of money is difficult, but it can be accomplished. I feel if a person learns how to moderate their urges with money, they can develop skills from gathering insight from the best in certain cases, be it:

the best escape artist
the best long ranged, short range, medium range, overall hunter
the best marksman, ranger, and much more

The money itself and being able to use it for survival training courses and much more may be a cop-out in your perspective, but the deux ex machina set of traits you get from the second option is MORE of a cop-out and less tangible with this reality. If someone just magically gets the ability to survive like that, it's implied that they have a progressive strive to naturally improve and adapt in given situations. Being able to constantly "evolve" like that defies practical theories with evolution, natural selection, and just how we as humans beings are limited with.

Also, people will start wondering where you got those abilities in the first place, and in the worst case scenarios, they might start digging deep into your body and going through hell just to figure out the origins of your ability. That wouldn't be a nice situation to get yourself into honestly.

So for me, the first option is what I would go after.

Money, because then you will never need to go out bush ever again.

Linkzelda, you have far too much spare time to be writing these lengthy replies.
Good content though.

That took like 5 minutes. =(

Ok let me chime in with round 2 of this little query here.

No new poll, just lets continue the discussion with this change in the scenario.

Lets include a realistic division of labor, that's actually relavant to us now. Instead of the original question; of "what is more important to you - money, or general/universal outdoor survival skills"; the question is now:

>What is more important to you - money, or the personally specialized skills that you dearly rely upon in your life? If one were to be magically rendered perminantly reliable at the expense of the other, which would you choose to master?

If it's that case, I would most likely gravitate towards personal skill sets, since money is just temporary and just a concept used for transactions and trade, having skill sets (just ones where you would have unconscious competence in) is more reliable. However, it depends on the type of labor done, if it's something that only gets a low pay, having money instead (since we're still in a realistic setting) might be more reasonable. It's dependent on whether there's a huge gap in the quantity of money compared to having personalized skill sets, which I'm presuming you're still keeping intact in this scenario. Either way, more money for me and more time to develop certain skills.

I work at AAA, and I'll tell you one thing:

There is NOTHING more pathetic than a full-grown man with a brand new Audio A4, who cries and panics like a little b!tch because he's stuck on the side of the highway, doesn't know how to change a flat tire and feels like he's literally going to die because he's gotta wait 30 minutes in 90-degree heat for a tow truck.

So, yeah...a little rationale into why I chose the second option.

Money. If I were often in situations in which I needed to be able to survive in the wilderness, then I'd be more likely to choose that. But that's unlikely to happen, so it would be a skill I'd rarely get to use, while money would come in handy for about every aspect of life. I like the wilderness, I love nature and would love to be able to survive on my own. I even have fantasies about doing so and being an awesome survivalist like Lara Croft or something.... but as tempting as that is, I think anyone who chooses that option is just lying to themselves, unless you live in a forest or something.

If I knew that some apocalyptic scenario was ever going to happen in my lifetime, then I would choose survival skills. But the chances seem too low for it to be worth it.

Originally Posted by IndieAnthias

>What is more important to you - money, or the personally specialized skills that you dearly rely upon in your life? If one were to be magically rendered perminantly reliable at the expense of the other, which would you choose to master?

Didn't read this before. I'm assuming by 'skills' you mean what you do for a living? Then I'd definitely choose that.
I guess if someone's 'skill' is something they're only dependent on because it gives them money, then they'd still choose money because there'd be no point in having the skill. But I enjoy programming and get satisfaction in it for reasons unrelated to money.

i wouldn't trade my physical abilities for the world, even though it hasn't gotten me anywhere in life.

You can't buy a prostitute with survival skills.

Originally Posted by Oneironaut Zero

I work at AAA, and I'll tell you one thing:

There is NOTHING more pathetic than a full-grown man with a brand new Audio A4, who cries and panics like a little b!tch because he's stuck on the side of the highway, doesn't know how to change a flat tire and feels like he's literally going to die because he's gotta wait 30 minutes in 90-degree heat for a tow truck.

So, yeah...a little rationale into why I chose the second option.

I had to change a flat tyre on my trusty old Audi A3 the other day. I would definitely buy another used Audi. Apart from tyres once in a while and figuring out how to change the brake light switch it has been completely trouble free for the last three years. I would also be quite happy to live in it if I became homeless

I'd choose survival skills and leave civilization. I'll start my own society... with blackjack and hookers!